


Paper or Plastic?

by chancetherappa



Series: Percy Jackson AU [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, Cabin Dad Kuroo, Intersex Oikawa Tooru, Kyoutani is a literal dog, M/M, Oikawa loves space but what's new, but mostly because i had to slip something i thought was funny in there, iwaizumi is a bit of a memelord, sorta - Freeform, stronk iwa-chan, there's a fight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2018-12-05 21:46:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11586831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancetherappa/pseuds/chancetherappa
Summary: Hajime didn't ask to be the son of a Greek god.





	1. Dog Fight

“Honey, we were supposed to leave thirty minutes ago!”

“Oh my gods, I _know!_ Just calm down for, like, _five seconds,_ Rebecca!”

_“Tooru!”_

The teenager in question rolled his eyes and huffed as he finished coiffing his hair, making sure his bangs lay in the perfect arrangement across his forehead. A double check in the mirror revealed his contour and brows to be _positively snatched,_ his highlight _blinding,_ and the teal on his eyelids reflecting light the same way the pale pink gloss on his lips did. Smirking in pride as he fluttered his eyelashes, just for good measure, he whipped around from his vanity, checking to make sure he had everything he needed for the trip. He’d actually triple-checked his belongings three hours ago; he just wanted to piss off his stepmother. The witch was nothing compared to the beauty that was his real mother. He could hear her thundering footsteps as she stomped up the stairs.

“Tooru, what on earth are you—” Rebecca began, storming down the door to his bedroom. “Have you been ready all this time?”

“Well, no; I just needed to set my makeup and then we’ll be ready to go,” he cooed, lying graciously and flashing a brilliantly white smile reserved for the people he was most spiteful toward. “Could you grab my bag, dear stepmother?”

She melted at the sight of his smile, “Of course, honey.” Grabbing the biggest suitcase in the room, she hauled it up onto her shoulders and carried it down the winding stairs. He knew exactly how heavy that thing was and didn’t regret packing everything in his bag one bit. Satisfied with the effects of his magic, Tooru grabbed his purse, slinging it over his right shoulder and he typed away at his phone, rose gold and encased in a pink, sparkly Victoria’s Secret PINK case with an alien charm dangling from it. His shorts were high-waisted and hugged his body well, and the Camp Half-Blood t-shirt was tied just at the belt loops, the teal complimenting his eye make-up and the Converse high tops on his feet. One last look in the mirror— _thank gods the t-shirt wasn’t that godawful orange anymore_ —and he and his stepmother were off to pick up Makki and Mattsun.

The summer sun beat down on Tooru’s porcelain skin as his stepmother drove the convertible down the highway. He’d missed camp to a certain extent but he wasn’t so sure he wanted to go back _again_. Hadn’t he been there enough? He sees the same people every time, and does the same things.

What’s so different about summer number ten at Camp Half-Blood?

* * *

_“Hajime…Hajim-e! Ahh!!”_

_A soft voice called his name breathlessly as he pounded again and again into tight, wet heat. The body underneath him was soft and warm and beautifully pale, reflecting the light of the moon as it shook in pleasure. Hajime breathed heavily over the quivering body beneath him, not doing much better for himself as he reached his peak._

Watch us…Bless our union, _he prayed in his thoughts, shutting his eyes as he brought his partner to orgasm, relishing in the sounds they made._

_“HAJIME!”_

Hajime awoke with a start, sitting upright in his bed as his mind reeled from his dream. He couldn’t remember what his partner in his dream even looked like, just what their voice sounded like when it was wrecked and that he had a major erection right now. One glance at the clock told him it was nearing three in the morning. With a groan, he grabbed the tissue box he kept on his night stand and rubbed one out, muffling his sounds into his pillow so his family wouldn’t hear. Not like they were awake, and even if they were, his father knew the things a single seventeen-year-old boy was up to at almost three AM.

Getting out of bed after a pleasant, surprisingly satisfying orgasm, Hajime carefully walked across the hall to the bathroom he shared with his two siblings; the floorboards would creak if a cat were to walk on them. Taking a good look in the mirror, he winced at the things that he saw: deep purple and yellow bruises up his arms from volleyball practice the past few weeks, paired with scars from the Camping Trip From Hell that happened a couple of weeks ago, and dark, layered bags under his eyes from staying up late studying for his Advanced Placement classes followed by not sleeping well.

Because of his dreams. Dreams like the one he woke up to this morning.

He was pretty sure he didn’t know anyone as gorgeous as the person in his dream; what drove him crazy was that the only detail he could ever remember in the morning was the sound of their voice.

Splashing water on his face, he finished up his bathroom business and went back into his bedroom, plopping back in bed with an _oomph,_ hoping he could at least get some rest before morning practice started in a few hours.

* * *

He slept through morning practice.

Hajime, the team captain, slept through morning practice, and didn’t regret it at all. Arriving at school at 8:30 on the dot, he locked his car behind him and trudged into the school, tugging at the tie on his uniform as he sweat underneath the collar. He didn’t understand why his school couldn’t get out for summer when the public schools did, because that would be easier on families like his where there were three different children at three different intelligence levels and at three different schools because of their age. Point is, it was hot as hell and the fact that he was sweating in the two minutes it took for him to walk into the building was a problem, even if he would be graduating in the next week or so.

Classes were uneventful as usual. The limit as x approaches 3 is infinity because there is an asymptote at that point and the graph is increasing, protons and neutrons are made of combinations of up and down quarks, nu is the Greek letter representing frequency in chemistry…nothing totally new to him. He nearly slept through tutoring the student in Algebra II that he meets with every Thursday after classes get out, and then he strolled on over to evening practice, where Yahaba was giving him the stink eye from the entrance to the club room.

“Where were you this morning?” he asked, stern look in his eyes.

“Um…in all honesty, I slept through my alarm,” Hajime said as he set down his backpack and started changing for practice.

“Bullshit! I know you don’t sleep well.”

“I’m telling you, Yahaba; I really did get some sleep last night.” He hated Yahaba’s Mom Stare of Concern. “Or, this morning? I dunno.” He waited for a response, and when he got none, he spoke again. “I had another dream.”

Yahaba froze. “A-Another one?”

“Yeah…what are you so nervous about?” he retorted, wondering why his vice-captain seemed so rigid.

“Oh…don’t worry about it! I’m glad you got some sleep,” he muttered, smiling a fake smile that Hajime could spot on anyone. “See you in the gym!” The ace’s brows furrowed as he watched his vice-captain trot off into the gym, squinting when he noticed the little limp that the setter had.

Practice went relatively well, considering he felt the ever-present glare of Kyoutani Kentarou on him the entire time. The aspiring ace seemed to have it out for Hajime, and it made him uneasy every single time he approached the boy with bleached hair. Sometimes it seemed like the wing spiker’s teeth had sharp fangs when the captain failed to get a good look at him, but Hajime was positive that was just a figment of his imagination. It didn’t help that the rest of the team had come to call him “Mad Dog,” since his moves were unpredictable and he was never one hundred percent reliable. Nobody mentioned that there were occasions where his angry grumbling sounded more like vicious growling.

But Hajime was of the understanding that Kyoutani had a rough home life and most of the time, things didn’t fall in his lap, and he had lost sleep and energy in order to work for what he does have.

So when Kyoutani’s practice spikes were a bit stronger than usual, Hajime barely managed to take note of it. It seemed the drills he suggested to him a couple weeks ago were beginning to pay off.

“Nice job, Kyoutani. Make sure to bring that power for our game on Saturday morning, okay?” Hajime said as he passed by at the end of practice, slapping the mad dog on the back in a way he did with all his teammates.

Kyoutani just muttered incoherently and walked off, making Yahaba tense as he strolled by. The vice-captain clenched his teeth and…limped? Limped? Why was he limping?

“Hey, Yahaba, you alright? I’m noticing your limp and I don’t know why, but how long have you had it, buddy? Maybe we should take you to the athletic trainer—”

“No, no! No. I’m fine, Iwaizumi; I promise. But look, I’ve been meaning to talk to you…” He trailed off, shamefully looking down at the ground. “I don’t know what it is, but ever since he transferred this semester, I don’t have a good feeling about that Mad Dog guy.”

“Honestly, Yahaba, you don’t have good feelings about anybody new,” Hajime responded, picking up stray volleyballs that had flown across the court and putting them in the rolling basket.

“Yeah, I know, I know, but like…hear me out on this one. For real.” Yahaba followed Hajime to where the last ball is left on the court. The captain glanced up and looked the setter straight in the eyes, seeing something deadly serious and nearly menacing behind those brown orbs. “I think Kyoutani Kentarou could be trouble. Just…watch out on Saturday, okay?”

Hajime stood up, placing the last volleyball in the cart. “Don’t worry about it, man. I’ll take care of it, like I always do. Don’t worry yourself too much about it, okay?” He placed his hand on his vice-captain’s shoulder, giving him a small smile of encouragement.

“Okay…I guess I’ll just trust you this time.” He smiled back, lifting Hajime’s arm and walking away.

“Seriously, get that limp checked out!” the captain called as Yahaba left for the locker rooms.

“Seriously, I’m fine!” was his response, laughing as he mockingly mimicked Hajime’s tone. It wasn’t too long before he finished cleaning up the gym, packed up, and headed home, since most of the chores were already done by the freshmen and sophomores.

* * *

Saturday came too fast.

Before he knew it, Hajime was bending at the waist, hands on his kneepads as he prepared himself for the final tournament of his high school career. He promised himself he wouldn’t let it get to him, but he knew that was a lie. Playing volleyball officially in college wasn’t something he wanted to do, even if the end goal was to become an athletic trainer. So, for now, he had to come face to face with the fact that this was probably his last chance to show the world of young athletes just how much he can shine.

Yahaba seemed about ready to chew his own fingers off. Hajime had to pull him aside before the games began and, in his attempt to calm him down, only made things worse. Sighing heavily, he had asked the setter on deck to step in until Yahaba calmed down, and he only succeeded in alighting his own nerves. Feebly, he tried to shake off what he could before summoning the team together for the hype speech.

“Alright you guys, this is what we’ve been training for. What we’re ready to go for. Give it everything you’ve got; don’t hold back. Let’s take down this so-called ‘Iron Wall’ and show them what ruling the court really means.” He placed his hand in the center of the circle, balling it into a fist. Just one last thing…one last thing to set them off…

_I’ll be counting on you._

The voice from his dream? From a dream he hadn’t had in a long time.

“I’ll…” Hajime hesitated, knowing that it was now or never when he saw the look on Yahaba’s face. Giving a charming smile for once, he looked across his team and said the words that had been dancing around his mind for weeks.

“I’ll be counting on you.”

* * *

“Tooru, that was a really violent sneeze. Are you catching a cold?”

“No! It’s too fucking _hot_ to catch a cold! Dumbass! Dumbass Makki!”

“You sound like that new kid from last year…Poseidon kid. It’s like he’s your disciple or something; he follows you around everywhere. Copies everything you do.”

 _“He does not!_ Rude, Mattsun!”

“Ha ha, he totally does.”

_“Guyyssssss!!”_

* * *

Needless to say, they showed that iron wall who’s boss. Hajime even got a few really good spikes in, feeling like a champion each of those three times he crashed through that wall. Yahaba had calmed down a little bit, and the captain was feeling confident enough to ask his coach to put him in the next game.

Karasuno was a worthy opponent. They had a genius setter, though he was arrogant as hell, and a little shrimp who could jump so high, it looked like he was flying. Two of their players were excellent receivers, including their all-region libero, known to volleyball players and coaches alike across the area. Perhaps they had a timid ace, but they made up for it with another feisty wing spiker, and a quiet, intuitive middle blocker. Even their pinch server could be deadly, should the situation call for it. They had many attacks, unpredictable, and perhaps the most difficult to stop was the freak quick attack, only performable by the genius and the shrimp. Like a demon and his club.

Hajime’s heart rate was through the roof. He knew his power as an ace overcame the long-haired, glass-hearted one, but the fire in the shrimp’s eyes as he stared through the net sent chills down his spine. The whistle blew and shocked him out of his stupor, laser-focusing in on the serve delivered by Karasuno’s genius setter. Hajime couldn’t place his finger on it, but it was like he had seen the serve before.

It wasn’t long before Hajime came to terms with the fact that their team, as it existed, was no match for Karasuno. He kept fighting with everything he had, nonetheless. He wasn’t going to go down easy, and neither was his team.

Except…it seemed like a certain wing spiker wasn’t ready to face this dead end.

Yahaba was sending increasingly anxious glances toward Hajime as Kyoutani got more and more riled up. His spikes weren’t landing, and if they were landing, it was out of bounds with nearly inhuman strength, blasting through the limbs that stood in their way. The middle blocker with the glasses even needed to have his fingers taped since some of that power broke one.

“Kyoutani, you need to calm your ass down, okay?” Hajime asked when they broke for a time-out. “You’re being reckless. How many times have you crashed into Kindaichi and Kunimi already?”

Nothing intelligible came from his mouth, just unruly growling that Hajime overlooked as angry muttering.

“Look. Don’t talk if you don’t want to. But I need you to take a deep breath and get your head back in the game. Sit out these next few rounds.” The captain’s words were final, and he ignored Yahaba’s wordless protests and the look of utter hatred in Kyoutani’s eyes in favor of returning to the court at the harsh sound of a whistle.

Hajime could feel the mad dog’s eyes burning holes in his chest as he continued to play, knowing the first set was already lost to Karasuno. The crows even seemed to pick up on the fact that something was wrong with their opponents. Even then, Hajime and his teammates fought to the bitter end, without Kyoutani, nearly collapsing on the floor in exhaustion when the match point was scored by the orange-haired shrimp. His heartbeat roared in his temples as he crouched on the floor, sweating bullets onto the floorboards of the gym, thumping again and again and echoing in his head until…

Until he was thrown across the gym with the force of a powerful punch.

He landed on the second court in the gymnasium with an _oomph_ , gasping for the return of the air that had been knocked out of him. Leaning up from the floor, he jerked his hands away when he realized the floorboards had bent and cracked under the force of his body on top of them and would probably cut his hands. He still coughed and held his abdomen as he tried to catch his breath, not noticing the bleached blonde hair until it was directly in front of his face.

“Look, I know—” he winced, “—I know that you’re mad at me for taking you out of the second set but you were getting out of control—”

“I’m not mad at you for that, Iwaizumi Hajime,” Kyoutani responded, a sinister edge to his voice. “I’m here to rid the world of you before you ruin his plans, you _half-blood.”_

“I’m sorry, _what?”_

Kyoutani didn’t answer the question. Instead, he yanked on the front of Hajime’s jersey, lifted him up, and threw him back onto the first court.

 _“Hajime!”_ Yahaba cried out from the sidelines, running towards him. “Think fast!”

His hand went out to catch the bracelet that his vice-captain always wore on his right wrist.

“Put that on, and then reach behind your head like you’re gonna swing a hammer!”

“What?! Are you _crazy?_ This isn’t the time for playing pretend, Yahaba!”

Yahaba’s face took on a look of hurt when he said, “Fine. Don’t listen to me.” He turned around and started walking away. “You never have, so why should you start now?”

“Yaha- _buh,”_ Hajime grunted as he was punched in the shoulder. “Alright, that’s it. You’re going down, Mad Dog.”

Kyoutani just grinned, his pupils nothing but dots in the centers of his scleras as his appearance took on a different form. Bones cracked and reformed as Kyoutani’s jersey ripped off of him, turning his shape into that of a massive hound, drool dripping off its teeth and sharp canines filling its mouth.

Well, Hajime supposed they could play pretend now, considering that their most powerful wing spiker just _morphed into his name-sake._

Hurling himself off the floor, he groaned in pain as his shoulder ached, managing to find enough balance to stand on his own two feet. He shouted, his shoulder popping back into place as he raised his arms, bringing his fists together behind his head and checking to make sure the bracelet was on his wrist, and then slammed his hands down as if he were holding a sledgehammer. When he finished the arc of the swing though, he was amazed to find that a large Thor-sized hammer had appeared in his hands, bearing a long handle with a pattern similar to the bracelet’s beads, and weighing almost nothing when he picked it back up. His eyes shifted to where Kyoutani—or the hellhound, as he now appeared—was foaming at the mouth, growling and circling his captain and ace.

“Kyoutani,” Hajime began, “You want to kill me? I’d like to see you try.”

He knew it was cheesy, but it appeared to do the trick. The mad dog lunged at him, mouth open and teeth bared, and Hajime swung the hammer a bit clumsily, since he wasn’t quite sure how to use it yet, ending up hitting the animal in the stomach area. Flailing backwards, Kyoutani hit the ground hard, with Hajime knowing he broke a few ribs.

Soon figuring out that if he moved fast, he could avoid the swings, the hellhound got a few bites and scratches in, causing Hajime to bleed a little bit, but ultimately the hound was no match for Hajime’s hammer. Because, even if it felt like papier mâché in his hands, it seemed like his sledgehammer could do all kinds of damage, much like his favorite superhero when he was a kid.

Hajime knocked the animal on its chest with his hammer. It flew backward, landing on the third court in the gymnasium. Walking up to it, the ace raised his hammer, up behind his shoulders, and brought it down on the beast’s head. He expected a bloodbath. Instead, the monster exploded into golden dust, almost like in a video game, and it spread all around. The hammer disappeared, curling itself around his wrist, and Hajime collapsed on the ground next to the dust pile, his pain and exhaustion finally settling in after the major adrenaline rush.

Yahaba appeared before him, worried expression more intense than he’s ever seen.

“Are you okay, captain?” he asked.

“I’ll make it. I’m just more concerned about the fact that I think I just murdered my successor as ace.” Chuckling humorlessly, he reached out his hand, relieved when Yahaba took it to help him up, and started walking, slowly, toward the gym exit. “I’m also scared about all those people out there who just watched me kill a dog.”

“Don’t worry about that; they’ll be fine. We gotta get you home,” his vice-captain said, helping him onto his feet and out to his car. “Your mother will help take care of everything.”

Yahaba dug in Hajime’s pockets for his keys, setting the captain down in the passenger seat of his own car before taking the driver’s seat. It wasn’t long before they were home, and as soon as they were inside, his mother scooped him up in her arms, settling him down on the couch and going back into the kitchen for an ice pack, or ten.

“I’m afraid it’s time, Miss Iwaizumi,” he heard Yahaba say.

“Oh…well I supposed I should have seen it coming. I’ll go pack his things?” his mother responded, questioning.

“No; I’ll do that. You spend some time with your son, and try to tell him what’s going on. I’ll keep his sisters upstairs.”

“Thank you, Yahaba.”

“It’s no problem.”

Yahaba went down the hall to his bedroom, confusing Hajime. Where was he going? He still had school to finish and he had to go to college.

“Mom? What’s going on?” he asked when his mother placed ice packs on his shoulder and head.

“Hajime, have I ever told you about your father?” she asked, sitting on the ottoman to look him in the eyes.

“I…I know it’s a touchy subject.”

“Your father…” she seemed to choke up for a moment, “your father is a different man than your sisters’ father.”

Oh.

“He isn’t that awful man that used to come by all the time and beg for money and threaten things…that’s your sisters’ father.”

“So…when I threatened him back, and he said that I wasn’t even his—”

“He was right, yes.” She took a deep breath. “Your father had bright brown eyes that gleamed almost auburn in some lightings. He was sweet and kind and caring and he had a hobby for metalwork.” She smiled and laughed a little, and Hajime had never seen her talk about a man like that. “He was very tall, worked in a car garage, and had this mop of curly red hair. I had to take my car in to get some maintenance things fixed and…I fell for him fast. We went on lots of dates; he wanted to take me everywhere. And then…well, you came along.” She looked down, biting her bottom lip and blushing in shame. “I was so excited. He told me something about him that I had to see to believe. Something you will see when you leave for camp with Yahaba. But, he only stuck around until you were born. He told he he’d see you come into the world, but after that, he had to leave. He had good reasons that I can’t tell you now, but…I still miss him sometimes.” She breathed in again, and Hajime, for the first time in his life, saw his mother on the verge of crying. “I wish he could have stayed around to watch you grow, but I know…I know he’s seen you. He’s probably so proud of you, Hajime…and now, you get to start your journey so that one day…you can meet him.”

He sat up, not caring about the ice packs falling off of him, and held his mother’s face, wiping away her tears and pulling her into an embrace. He kissed her hair, holding her tight as she wept.

“You look just like him,” she said, holding onto his biceps. “You’ve got the same strong body he does, and the same eyes. The only thing you got from me is…your hair.” Hajime chuckled, pressing his forehead against his mother’s. “Now let’s get those scratched cleaned and bandaged and then, you can finally go to summer camp.”

Hajime didn’t know what she meant, but he laughed and followed her into the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello all! welcome to the first of many in a percy jackson and the olympians au series! i am really excited about this and will probably end up covering all of the characters. it's been a work in progress for too long and i meant to post this on oikawa's birthday but since this opening story focuses a little too much around iwaizumi, i didn't think it was that imperative to finish and post.
> 
> thank you for reading!! come hang out on my tumblr @chance-the-writa and ask me questions!!!!


	2. Valium Colored Skies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime gets used to camp, and finds out who his father is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long i had a lot going on.
> 
> special shoutout to @caelestisxyz for giving me some really awesome advice.
> 
> anyway here's chapter 2

“So…I’m a demigod.”

“Yep.”

“Like in the Greek myths they told us in middle school.”

“Yep.”

There was a stiff silence as Hajime processed what was just confirmed, only interrupted by the scratchy radio that Yahaba insisted be on and the soft pattering of rain on the outside of the car windows.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.”

“Sadly, I’m not. I’m…I’m your guardian satyr. Believe me or not, these aren’t my actual legs.” Yahaba drove with a surprising calmness, like he’d done this before or something.

“Sorry, remind me what a satyr is again?” Hajime asked, ready to pull his hair out with how hard he was tugging on the coarse dark brown strands.

“Half-man, half-goat,” he immediately replied, eyes on the road as he focused on driving. “Look, I really think you should take a little time and nap. A lot has happened and you need some rest.”

“I…can’t argue with that. First, I kill my successor as ace—”

“For the umpteenth time, you didn’t _kill_ him; you just sent him back to Tartarus.”

“Which is?”

“The never-ending pit in the depths of the Underworld that holds all the world’s monsters? Man, you got a lot to remember.”

“So, you’re saying he could come back?”

“Iwaizumi. Go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

* * *

The jerky movements of the car jostled him awake.

“What the hell, Yahaba?!”

“Goin’ off-road for a little bit,” he replied calmly, focusing on driving.

“Well…yeah!!” Hajime screamed, holding onto the handle grooves in the door for dear life.

“Don’t worry, we’re getting close. Five more minutes. You might want to stay awake.”

“What, so I can protect you with the _magic hammer bracelet_ that apparently only I can use?”

“Yeah, mostly. But also because I want you to see the big gate.”

“The what now?”

Yahaba chuckled, knowing he’d distracted Hajime for just the right amount of time, nodding his head forward at the windshield. “That.”

Hajime looked through the windshield, well aware of his frazzled nerves and jitters, to find a beautiful golden archway etched in Greek letters among the foliage. Well, they looked Greek for a second, but Yahaba drove slowly as Hajime squinted at the archway. The letters seemed to rearrange themselves into a Papyrus-esque font, reading “Camp Half-Blood” in English in his head.

“Whoa.”

“Yeah. We’re here. Welcome to summer camp, Hajime.”

Yahaba continued to guide the old Jeep Grand Cherokee on the dirt trail that led to the camp as the leaves and trees parted to reveal a brilliantly sunny meadow of hills, interrupted only by the two tire trails of the dirt path and a single massive tree, holding what looked like a gold Letterman’s jacket on an extended limb resembling an arm. In the distance, but not too far, as he looked west to east, Hajime could see a large oval arena, a big white plantation house to the northwest, a massive, open-aired temple-looking building to the north, a collection of shelters containing kids that looked more like they were preparing for war than for camp recreation, and a large array of houses that looked out over the inlet.

“This is beautiful.”

“Isn’t it? You can thank the wood nymphs for cleaning everything up overnight, though we try our hardest to make sure we’re as environmentally friendly as possible for their sake. They know when you hurt the earth, and will hunt you down and make you regret your decision. Other than that, they’re a little gossipy but fairly understanding.” As Yahaba spoke, Hajime noticed a few ethereal looking people emerging from the forest, one on the taller side with full-body freckles and black helicopter hair, and the other shorter, with cropped honey-colored locks and a piercing motherly gaze that he could feel through the car. A third person trotted behind them, wearing a flower crown in his strawberry-blonde hair with bangs so straight they could cut vegetables. Hajime didn’t miss the large amount of leaves and greenery they all wore, or how they seemed to glow green under the shade of the trees.

“Are those the wood nymphs?” he asked.

“A few of them, yes. There are also sea nymphs who live in that ocean inlet over there,” the setter replied, nodding his head toward the row of houses and the sparkling water in front of them. “They usually only come out for meal times but you might see them at night if you’re out past curfew.”

“Curfew?”

“This might be a camp for demigods but this is still a summer camp.”

“Right.”

As they approached the large plantation house, Hajime tried to ignore the chill down his spine when he saw an eerie light emerging from the top floor windows while Yahaba parked in the front. His curiosity got the better of him when he ended up asking what it was.

“Oh that? That’s just Kenma; you’ll meet him at dinner. He’s the host for the Oracle.”

“That…sounds vaguely familiar.”

“The Oracle at Delphi? You know…the person who gave heroes their quests?”

“Uhhhh…”

“You’re hopeless.”

“I try to forget as much of middle school as possible.” Hajime shrugged as they got out of the car, slinging his duffle bag on his shoulder as he went. Holding his sleeping bag like Santa Claus’s toy sack over his right shoulder and his pillow under his left arm, he followed his setter onto the front porch, finally noticing that he had hooves instead of feet.

“What are you laughing at?”

“A meme.”

“Which meme?”

_“Those are his hooves, you bitch.”_

“Oh my god.”

Two men sat on the front porch, one of them with curly black hair and glasses, sitting in a wheelchair and the other with bleached hair pulled back into a headband, smoking what looked to be his seventh cigarette and drinking a can of Diet Coke. The man in specs put down his cards, eyes lighting up as he smiled and wheeled over to greet Hajime.

“New campers!! We have a new camper, Ukai!”

The blonde man snuffed out his cigarette, smiling softly. “You knew that, Takeda.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m still excited!” He stopped wheeling at the top stair. “Come on up, my boy. What’s your name? I’m afraid I can’t come down any farther without help.”

“Of course,” Hajime answered, walking up the stairs and shaking Takeda’s hand when it was offered. “Iwaizumi Hajime.”

“Takeda Ittetsu. I run the logistic stuff and make sure things go smoothly, basically. And blondie over there…”

“Ukai Keishin,” he said before Takeda could finish, scooting his chair back and walking over to Hajime. Again, they shook hands, and Ukai went back to his card game and Diet Coke. “You might have learned about us in your mythology books under the names Dionysus and Chiron.”

“Like the…god of wine? And the uhh…I can’t remember the name; I’m so sorry, but the half-man, half-horse?”

“Centaur, sweetie,” Takeda corrected. “I use magic to make it appear like I’m in a wheelchair. I knew you’d be coming, so I didn’t want to freak you out too much when you got here. Do you want to see my normal form?”

“I mean, I watched my teammate transform into a giant dog, so, there’s not much you can do to freak me out at this point,” Hajime muttered, shifting his weight around and trying to put his hand in his pocket with his pillow under his arm.

“Oh, well, that a relief for me,” the bespectacled man said, standing up from his wheelchair and revealing his horse half just like that. “Whew, much better.”

“Anyway, kiddo, you know who your god parent is?” Ukai interjected from his side of the table.

“No…?”

“Yahaba, have you seen an insignia yet?” he asked the satyr, lighting a new cigarette.

“No, sir, but there’s strong evidence that his father is Hephaestus.”

“How strong?” Hajime held in his breath while Ukai blew out the smoke.

“My mom said that he did metalwork as a hobby? Which is pretty rare nowadays?”

“Yes, but it’s not strong enough evidence. I’ve know people born at the end of last century who did blacksmithing for fun, they just called it metalwork, like your mother did,” Takeda piped up. “Well, it was nice to meet you Iwaizumi! Yahaba will show you to the Hermes cabin, where you will be staying until your god parent claims you. It won’t be long, now that you’re at Camp Half-Blood. Dinner is at six-thirty sharp, at the pavilion up there.” He pointed to the open-aired temple-looking building from earlier. “And for today and tomorrow, you can walk around with him and whatever other friends you meet until we know who your parent is. Then your real training begins. Understood?”

“Understood, sir.”

“Good. See you at dinner!” Takeda smiled and waved as they walked away, while Ukai gave them a curt nod.

“What’s with the Diet Coke and cigarettes?” Hajime asked Yahaba when they were a good distance away from the plantation house.

“One, he can still hear you, probably, and two, it’s cause his grandfather cut him off from the wine and he’s using cigarettes and soda to cope.”

“Ah. Also, if we have my car, why didn’t we just drive?”

“They didn’t drive in Ancient Greece.”

“…Is that seriously the reason?”

“Yep.”

“Dammit.”

The closer they got to the array of houses on the inlet, Hajime began to see the different styles and details on each one. He assumed that represented different gods and goddesses, as was obvious, but no one was around the circle of buildings or the large bonfire in the center.

“Where is everyone?”

“Oh, they’re out doing recreational stuff.”

“You mean preparing for war?”

“You’ll think it’s fun soon enough. C’mon, let’s go to the Hermes cabin.”

“These aren’t cabins man; they’re way too fancy for that.”

“Oh, well, they used to be way more ‘summer camp,’ but since the arrival and departure of that Percy kid, a lot has improved here,” Yahaba said, leading him toward the biggest house out of all of them. “This is the cabin for children of Hermes. When kids come to camp without knowing who their godly parent is, they stay here until they are claimed, since Hermes is not only the messenger god but also the god of travelers.”

“I see.”

“This has been rebuilt huge on purpose in order to accommodate more guests like you until they find out where they’re supposed to be. Used to be really cramped in there and you apparently had to claim your place on the floor. Oh, one more thing,” the satyr mentioned as he unlocked the front door with a key that Hajime assumed would be his.

“What’s that?”

“Keep your valuable stuff close to you while you’re staying here. Hermes is also the god of thieves and his kids will try to steal your stuff.”

“Good to know I have trustworthy roommates.”

“Yeah…here’s your key,” Yahaba finished, handing off the key and letting Hajime in. “I…honestly, I won’t be around you much. I live in the woods with the nymphs and I spend most of my time there. It’s likely I will be sent out on another protector mission—”

“Protector what?”

“Protector mission. I befriended you because Ukai sent me out to your school to guide you to camp, basically. Guide you to safety.” Yahaba looked down at the ground and ran his fingers through his chestnut hair, tucking his fingers in his pants pockets. “I’m glad you ended up being a really awesome dude. Unlike _some_ demigods…” His expression turned a little bit sour as he trailed off.”

“Who?” Hajime asked, stepping inside the cabin and inviting the former setter inside so they could talk while he set up his bed.

“Ohhh, you’ll probably meet him later. He’s a son of Aphrodite, and he’s been a pain in my ass since Ukai started asking me to do protector missions.”

“Oh, oh, I know this one! Beauty and lust, right?”

“Technically love, but you’re not wrong.”

Hajime managed to find a room upstairs as Yahaba continued to explain things, rattling off about the morning routine and what time he needed to be where for dinner and for tomorrow. There seemed to be a lot on the agenda, but Hajime had always soaked up information fast, as was prevalent on his test scores.

Wait. Test scores. School. Shit, he was supposed to graduate this year.

“Wait, Yahaba,” Hajime interrupted.

“Yeah?” Yahaba looked up, sitting cross-legged on the bottom bunk that Hajime had designated for himself.

“What am I gonna do about school? I was…I was supposed to graduate this year.” He looked down at the ground, eyebrows furrowed and arms crossed as he thought about what he could do.

“Oh, well…most demigods don’t actually graduate. A lot don’t survive through high school…” the satyr trailed off heavily, like he was mourning the lives of young demigods he used to know.

“…oh.”

“Yeah. But,” he began again, standing up as Hajime loosened his posture, “that doesn’t mean _you_ can’t graduate. I’ll try to find something so you can still get your degree.” A warm hand rested on his shoulders when the ace looked up from the ground, worry and tension flushing from his form.

“Thank you, Yahaba.”

“Sure, man.” He stood around for a little bit before somewhat awkwardly shuffling toward the stairs. “So, yeah, dinner’s at six-thirty…I’ll see you then? You’ll probably meet the Hermes cabin leader before then, so…”

“Yeah. See you at dinner man,” Hajime said, giving Yahaba a tight hug. “And Yahaba?”

“Yeah?”

“Seriously, thanks. For everything. Even though my life is so much more complicated now…some things I never understood are finally making sense.”

Yahaba gave a small, sad smile before he left that Hajime understood with every fiber of his being. Things would only get more difficult as he got older. As he did grow, though, he would learn how to better protect himself, defend himself, keep the ones he loved safe…but he guessed that’s what camp was for.

It wasn’t long before a rowdy group of teenagers burst through the door to the house downstairs, startling Hajime out of the nap he had been taking. Groaning when his torso shot up and his head hit the underside of the bunk above him, he squinted at the door in anger as he ripped the sheets off, grumbling as he went down the stairs.

A kid with bright red, spiked-up hair noticed him first, his lips curling into a quirky, almost animal-like shape as his eyes grew wide. Hajime had never seen someone with eyes that big before. Or, perhaps, he was just still sleepy and hallucinating a bit.

“Olololo? So, we _do_ have a new tenant after all…” he said, his voice fluctuating up and down in pitch and never really settling on one way of speaking.

“Alriiiiight!!” A loud laugh emerged from the front door, full of snorts and cackles, and yet, Hajime thought it could be endearing to someone. “Fresh meat!!” The deep but playful voice belonged to another guy with a bleached undercut and a piercing in his tongue, along with several stones in his ears.

“Now, now, Yuuji; we don’t want to scare off our guest, do we?” The smooth lilt had a twinge of something Hajime couldn’t place, unforgiving and unrelenting. Matching the voice was a head of pin-straight, flat brown hair, containing a face of squinty eyes, thin eyebrows, and a smile that could just as easily have been a sneer. His lips seemed to stretch from ear to ear, and Hajime wondered if all the people in this cabin looked like cartoon characters.

The brown-haired guy who addressed Yuuji stepped forward, holding his hand out to Hajime. “I’m Daishou Suguru. I’ll be your cabin leader until you are claimed, or, if you just so happen to be a son of Hermes as well…then I’ll be your cabin leader until I leave, or until you decide to leave. What’s your name?”

Hajime squinted again. Daishou spoke so formally that it creeped him out. “Iwaizumi,” he simply said, not trusting the cabin leader with his first name.

“A man of few words, I see. Did Yahaba show you around upstairs?” He clasped his hands behind his back, walking further into the cabin and raising an eyebrow as he awaited Hajime’s response.

“Yes, I’ve already gotten myself settled. I was napping when you all barged in.”

“Ah, yes. What did you have to fight?”

“A hellhound.”

“Oh?” the redhead piped in, eyes actually as wide as Hajime had originally thought and _very_ close to his face. “That’s amazing!! I’m Tendou Satori, by the way.” With a warm handshake, Hajime concluded that Tendou was energetic and kind; he was a little mischievous, but all in all not a bad guy.

“Terushima Yuuji!!” the blonde cut in, smiling bright and giving a mock salute. “Glad to have ya man!” He pulled Hajime in for what he could best describe as a bro hug. He remained stiff as a board.

“Likewise,” he said sarcastically, gathering up his important things (wallet, cell phone, keys) and heading back to the door.

“Where are ya going, Iwaizumi?” a voice called out to him.

“Away from here,” he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking the door shut behind him.

“Wow, rude,” Terushima muttered after a beat.

“I wouldn’t say rude…” Tendou pondered, reaching underneath his bed covers for the alcohol they all knew he smuggled in. “I’d say he’s just really direct.”

“Tendou…for once, you might be right about something,” Daishou muttered, taking a swig of the vodka bottle after jerking it from the redhead’s hands. “Something tells me he won’t be staying with us very long.”

* * *

Hajime took his time looking at the outsides of all the cabins, in awe of the idea that most of the designs must have been made by the campers, and he tried to remember things about his mythology lessons as he looked. One house was entirely made of cement block, covered in graffiti, and he half expected to walk in there and find a ton of bikers beating each other up. Another was a pleasant shade of blue, soft on his eyes and covered in sea shells and dried kelp and surrounded by sand. The largest of them all was another plantation house, looking a lot more updated and regal than the first place he had been brought to, with a stupidly big lightning rod on the roof. He shifted his gaze back to where he started, and on the other side of the cabin covered in graffiti was a real life version of a toy he remembered his little sister having.

There was a goddamned Barbie Dream House in the semicircle of cabins, flashing lights through the windows and muffling some intense bass from loud speakers.

“Aphrodite,” he mumbled to himself, squinting his eyes and wondering if all the kids in that cabin were going to be stereotypical fraternity and sorority partiers like he was thinking.

The door to the cabin burst open and out stumbled a tall girl with short brown hair and beautiful long legs. Hajime couldn’t tear his eyes away. She whined and screeched at two guys following behind her, but he didn’t notice them. The world was moving in slow motion as the lyrics from the shitty pop song blared through the open door of the Dream House.

_I’ve got a…sweet tooth, and strawberry youth…_

Pale skin glowed in the afternoon sun, smooth and free of blemishes. Her lips shone with pale pink gloss that reflected the sun’s rays blindingly.

_You wanna be my licorice and misguided truth?_

Hajime wanted to hold that sharp jaw and sink his teeth into her full bottom lip.

_And right now, I’ll show you how…_

With a turn of her head, her makeup appeared dewy on her skin, her long eyelashes leaving shadows on her cheeks, and her eyes a gorgeous deep brown that held way more inside than her flawless looks. Tearing his gaze from her face with a whip of her head, she dusted herself off, opening her mouth to speak. What came out was...

Well, that was no girl, _that_ was for sure.

_I’m a beauty killer._

The music inside the house turned way down almost on cue, giving way for the two guys’ laughter to be heard above the electronic harmonies.

“Makki! Mattsun! How _dare_ you push me down the stairs?! And in front of the new kid, too!” he whined, in a lower, more natural pitch than the squeal he let out earlier.

The guy with the snapback was wiping tears from his eyes as he tried to put together a response, “You just look fucking ridiculous when you trip and fall is all.” He held his gut as he kept on laughing, and the guy with the dark curly hair and bushy eyebrows stepped off the front porch with his hand outstretched.

“Sorry, Tooru. C’mon, we got milk bread waiting for you at dinner.” He pulled the beautiful man up off the ground, finally giving Hajime some acknowledgement afterward. “Hey man, welcome to camp. I’m Matsukawa Issei, that’s Hanamaki Takahiro,” he said, pointing toward the kid in the snapback, “and this piece of shit is Oikawa Tooru.”

“Motherfucker, I’ll show you what a piece of shit is…” Tooru seemed to cut off his speech as he got a good look at Hajime, roaming his eyes up and down his torso and arms until Hajime felt a little uncomfortable. “…Later. I’ll remind you later. In the arena.”

“Ohhhhh, Issei, you’re gonna get owned!” Hajime rolled his eyes at Hanamaki’s clap back, sticking out his hand to shake.

“I’m Iwaizumi Hajime.” Tooru seemed to visibly shake as he spoke. “Nice to meet you all. Are you alright, Oikawa? You’re shivering.”

“O-Oh, I…it’s nothing. I just haven’t eaten all day and I need some carbs. Care to join us for dinner?” He popped his hip, crossing his arms in an overconfident pose as he spoke in a velvety tenor voice. “Unless you’d rather sit with the Hermes crowd…”

“I…would love to,” Hajime responded, cringing at the thought of eating with Daishou’s eyes on him.

“I wouldn’t trust that snake if I were you.”

“Yahaba already told me about their dishonest tendencies…” he said as they began walking toward the pavilion.

“In all honesty, Daishou is the only one you need to worry about,” Hanamaki said, stretching his arms behind his head. “Everyone else in there is actually pretty great. Tendou and Terushima are a riot. And all the other Hermes kids are just kinda pranksters. But Daishou…”

“You’ll have to ask Kuroo about Daishou,” Matsukawa cut in, a grim look overtaking his features.

“Kuroo?” Hajime asked, scrunching his eyebrows.

“You’ll meet him soon enough. Did you have to fight a monster before you came here? Most of Yahaba’s demigods do…” Tooru muttered, interested but trying to look like he wasn’t.

“Yeah. Hellhound.”

“Huh. Oddly enough, me too. Was his name Kyoutani?”

“Shit. How did you know?”

“That particular monster gets reincarnated every year or so. If you stay at camp, chances are you won’t likely see him again, but in the real world…” He stopped just before they could enter the pavilion and have the chaos of dinner interrupt him. “In the real world, you’ll see him more often than you’ll want to. But as you get stronger, he’ll get easier to take down.” He strolled into the pavilion, high-top sneakers accentuating his calves. “Makki’ll tell you how dinner works.”

Hajime sat at the Aphrodite table with an empty plate, thinking of what he’d want to eat. Once he imagined it, he knew it would just come into existence. The problem was that he had to imagine it first. There were so many things he could think of…

They had just started calling tables to come make their sacrifices into the fire when Hajime decided he wanted agedashi tofu and rice, and edamame. He put a little bit of everything into the flames, wanting to get an even blend of stuff while he ate.

“So, you know how I got all those matching Louis Vuitton clothes? Well, when you buy a certain amount, you get like a free blanket—”

“Tooru, how much did you make your dad spend?”

The pretty boy giggled and then smirked, “Ten thousand dollars.”

Hajime nearly spit out his food. _”What?!”_

“On just clothes.”

“How much did you have to spend to get a goddamn blanket?!”

“Five thousand of course. So we got two.”

“You…let me see what it looks like, for that much fucking money.”

“Alright.” Tooru took out his phone, not letting Hajime miss the Victoria’s Secret PINK logo or the little alien charm that dangled from it, and showed him the picture.

“Honestly if you bought a similar looking fabric, you could get that done all by yourself for like $15.”

Tooru scoffed, “Why would you want to do that? It’s so much easier just to buy it.”

“Frankly, I think that it ends up meaning a lot more to you if you make something yourself rather than buy it. You tend to take better care of it and you get to appreciate it more because you know the hard work that went into it, Shittykawa.” Hajime gave him a hard set glare, munching on his rice and not noticing that the table had gone silent. Tooru was looking directly over his head, and Hajime followed his eyes, seeing a red fiery emblem with a hammer and sword in the middle.

“Congratulations, Iwaizumi!! You’ve been claimed by your father, Hephaestus!” Takeda said from the other side of the room, and everyone erupted in cheers.

Except Tooru.

“Shitty…kawa?”

“Yeah. Just a nickname for you until you learn to take care of yourself on your own,” Hajime said, picking up his plate and moving over to the Hephaestus table. He left Tooru in shock, in disbelief that someone would call him such a mean, yet endearing name.

Hajime was an enigma but Tooru wanted to learn more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come hang out on tumblr! @chance-the-writa


	3. I Finally Wrote Your Song, At Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime settles in his new cabin, and learns some new things about a couple people he's met at camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from "Dad's Song" by Set It Off

The Hephaestus table contained a decent number of kids, but it was nowhere near as crowded as the Aphrodite table, and it was most certainly not as tight as the Hermes table. Hajime could tell that while the cabins had been updated and upgraded, the pavilion perhaps wasn’t part of that plan. The tables littering the place were cracked and faded, some of them not tables at all, but just conveniently flat-surfaced rocks used as tables.

A shout interrupted his thoughts, the loud yelp coming from a tall kid with unruly hair that stood up from the head of the Hephaestus table. Hajime supposed he was cabin leader. He had a strong build, similar to himself, with his defined arms left bare by the thin straps of the red tank top he wore. It appeared as though his skin was littered with various kind of burn marks, with the nastiest lying underneath the bangs that lay across his forehead. Hajime was curious but he was also smart enough to know that an injury like that wasn’t something that you asked about when you met them. Blinking his eyes to snap out of his staring trance, Hajime managed to brace himself for impact as the black-haired man approached him.

“Yo, dude, welcome to Hephaestus! Man, I’m so surprised you got claimed that fast; everybody else takes at least a week. Point is, I’m glad you’re not stuck in Hermes for a full night. Or seven,” he said with a smooth, deep voice, lazy like a cat. “I’m Kuroo Tetsurou, and I’m your new cabin leader.” Instead of going for the hug like Hajime has originally thought he would, Kuroo clapped his hand on his shoulder and offered the other to shake, which was far more in his comfort zone rather than a hug from a stranger. He took his hand, noting his strong and warm grip, before returning his smile and nodding his head.

“Iwaizumi Hajime,” he said, remembering the weird vibes he got from Daishou when they first met. None of that stuff was emitting from Kuroo, just a friendly, genuine smile with seemingly no intentions behind it. “Glad to be here.”

“Glad to have you. I think you’ll like it here. You ready to sweat a whole lot though? ‘Cause in case you can’t remember from middle school, we spend a lot of time around fire and heated shit, if yanno what I’m sayin’,” Kuroo responded, eyes sly and lips curled into a shit-eating grin. The man seemed to be a good-natured troublemaker, extremely talkative and pleasant to be around, but there were faint signs of him being a prankster.

Nothing Hajime couldn’t handle. He had little siblings, after all.

The rest of dinner passed relatively smoothly, and Hajime met the other people in his new cabin. Most of them held the same mellow personality and honesty, but one stood out to him at the end of the table. There sat an extremely tall, lanky man with silver hair and clumsy limbs. He was loud but there wasn’t a single bad bone in his body.

“And that’s Lev,” Kuroo said as he finished up introducing everyone.

“Haiba Lev, at your service!” The guy extended his hand to shake and—Hajime swears—his hands were the size of his own feet. But, nonetheless, he gave him a firm handshake to establish dominance and then nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Haiba.”

“Lev is fine! I’m half-Russian, so I’m used to sharing my first name.”

“Alright, then...Lev it is.”

The rest of dinner went by fairly smoothly, with Hajime finishing his meal at a table that appreciated him and his sense of humor far more than the Aphrodite kids. It had been a really long time since he’d been able to laugh and have a good ol’ time with people he related to, and he was so thankful for the dinnertime bonding with his...he guessed they were his brothers and sisters, now.

Kuroo walked him back to the cabins, easily putting an arm around his shoulders due to their height difference. His new cabin leader approached the Hermes cabin, nudging him forward.

“I don’t like getting anywhere near that cabin, so I’ll meet you right here when you’re done, man,” Kuroo told him, giving him finger guns and a wink. Hajime thought his behavior was kind of weird but he dismissed it, shrugging and heading up to the Hermes cabin one final time to gather his things.

“Oh, well, if it isn’t Mr. Iwaizumi,” Daishou slurred as Hajime walked into the cabin.

“The man of the hour!” Terushima crowed from the tabletop he sat upon.

“Fastest to be claimed in all Camp Half-Blood history,” Tendou lulled, leaning his back against Terushima.

“Is that so?” Daishou replied, raising a thin eyebrow and glancing at Hajime.

“Man, I still don’t know what’s going on. I’m trying to learn as much as fast as I can. Thanks for your hospitality for the day,” he responded, trudging his way up the stairs and trying to ignore all the eyes following him as he did so.

“Do you think he’ll actually learn fast?”

“I don’t know. He’s a Hephaestus kid. You know how they are…”

“Yes.” Daishou’s eyes never left the top of the staircase. “Indeed I do.”

* * *

Settling in his new cabin didn’t take long. There were no bunk beds, though the temperature inside the house itself was freezing. 

“Kuroo, why’s it so cold in here?” Hajime asked, rubbing on his upper arms in an attempt to create friction.

“Oh, well, the smithery is really hot and honestly most of the time we’re sick and tired of sweating, so...I know it feels like Christmastime in here, but trust me, you’ll thank us later,” Kuroo drawled, sliding on a sweatshirt despite what he said.

“Well...okay, then.” Hajime made himself a little bedding area, again grateful that there were no bunk beds in this cabin. Only about fifteen kids inhabited the giant house, which made enough room for everybody to kind of have their own space. Thank god.

The mattress was very soft, and he sunk into it as if it were a five star hotel.  _ “Oh my god.” _

“Yeah, we asked for those a while ago...just wanted something that would help with how long we have to be on our feet, and working...actually, I discovered something not too long ago that can really help.” Kuroo dug around in his clothes and stuff and pulled out a pair of all black sneakers.

“Kuroo, aren’t those just a pair of Vans?”

“Nah, man. This past winter they came out with these special ones, made for people who work for 8-12 hours at a time on their feet. Like...there’s extra traction and there’s stuff on it so nothing will stain it, and they’re  _ super _ comfortable,” he said, showing them off. “What size do you wear?”

“Ten and a half.”

“Damn, I wear twelves. Must be height difference.”

Hajime nodded, watching Kuroo flop down on his bed. His hair moved out of the way and the new cabin member got a better look at the cabin leader’s scar on his forehead.

“I...I met the guys from Aphrodite earlier—”

“Don’t tell me you’ve got a crush on one.”

“No, no! I just...the one with the big eyebrows, Matsu…”

“Matsukawa? He’s cool, you can have a crush on him.”

“No, man...Matsukawa told me something about asking you about Daishou? No one seems to trust him…”

Kuroo got a grave look on his face, and then he sat up, stretching his arms and then crossing them. Biting his lip for a few moments, he clicked his tongue and sighed, laying out his legs.

“You seem like a good guy, Hajime...all I want you to know about Daishou is that whenever you have an encounter with him, listen to what your gut says.” He averted his eyes, his glare fixated at a particular spot on the carpet floor. “Typically, your instincts are gonna be your best bet, and you should really...trust yourself more.” Kuroo continued to glare at the floor for a moment, before he took a deep breath and shook his head back and forth, making gibberish noises with his mouth. “Enough of that, though! Tell me about you, man! Cabin leader’s gotta know his kids.”

Hajime squinted, but began talking nonetheless. “My mother lives in a suburb of New York with my little brother and sister...It’s been really hard without a father, or at least someone to help out, but...I understand now. My brother and sister had a normal father, and when my sister turned three, he walked out on us and l had to step up and help raise Hiro and Momo. He’s still in middle school and Momo is finishing up elementary…”

“Man...that’s rough. What’d you do in high school?”

“I played a lot of sports...basketball in the winter, track in the spring, and volleyball in the summer and fall.”

_ “Volleyball? _ Aw, man, we love volleyball! I was a middle blocker in high school. Y’know, ‘til I got attacked by a flying bird monster but that’s not the point,” Kuroo laughed, and Hajime was glad to see that he’d shaken off whatever funk he was in. “What position did you play?”

“Well, I was a wing spiker…”

“That’s all? With your body?”

“Alright, I was the ace and captain.”

_ “That’s  _ more like it.”

Hajime enjoyed his evening getting to know Kuroo and everyone else in his cabin. He was definitely curious about what happened with his leader and Daishou, but it was clearly old news and they didn’t want it brought up. But there was one more piece of information he found useful.

“Y’know, Oikawa was a setter in high school.”

“Really? The pretty boy?”

“Yeah, he even won national awards for how well he set.”

“You’re kidding...wow.”

“See what happens when you judge a book by its cover?”

“You never gave me that advice.”

“No, but if you never had a dad, I’m your dad now. Gonna give you all my dad advice.”

“Oh, god.”

That night, when they all went off to sleep, Hajime found his first rest without a plague of these dreams he’d been having. No wet dreams, just...peaceful, heavy sleep.

* * *

“Makki,  _ he’s so hot!” _

“He called you ‘Shitty-kawa.’”

“I don’t care!” Tooru flopped back onto his canopy bed in the Dreamhouse, the sun having gone down a long, long time ago. “He’s  _ so hot,  _ Makki...I don’t know what I’m gonna do.” Tooru sat up, rubbing his forehead with his hands. He muttered a curse when he rubbed off pieces of the face mask that was still drying.

Hanamaki yawned, snapback cap still covering his hair as the green Lush mask also soaked into the skin on his face. “Look, you know what happens when you jump on somebody that matches what you’re aesthetically attracted to. It never tends to work out well for you.”

“Ugh...I know.”

“Do you, though?”

“Shut up. I just…” Tooru fidgets with his hands in his lap. “I dunno. I feel different about this one. He...Iwa-chan...there’s something new about him.”

“Have you talked to Mom?”

“No...not yet.”

“You know she’s kinda...the expert on love and stuff,” Hanamaki responded, pulling out his phone and swiping on Tinder.

“Double standard!!!” Tooru screeched, pointing indignantly at his friend’s phone.

“Keep it down; the kids are sleeping. And hey, you know the one for me is Mattsun. And we’re open, so.” The pink haired boy took a drag from his vape, making the air in Tooru’s room smell like sour blue raspberry straws.

“Ugh...just let me have this, Makki.” Tooru flopped back on his bed, and the timer on his phone went off. “Let’s wash off our faces.”

“Alright. Just be careful okay? We’ll be looking out for you, but I want you to figure out how to make decisions on your own. You’re the most spoiled out of all of us and sometimes you get it in your head that the world revolves around you.” He turns on the hot water spigot in the sink, holding his finger underneath the stream to make sure the water wouldn’t be cold on his face.

“Bitch.”

“I could say the same thing.”

“You’re right…”

“When am I wrong?”

“...you’re usually right.”

“I don’t want this to be another ‘I told you so.’ I don’t wanna have to tell you ‘I told you so’ again.” Hanamaki slipped off his cap, pulling his hair back with one of Tooru’s headbands and then rinsed the mask off his face, drying it off with the pink towel that hung by the sink. “And I know I don’t know everything, but I’m tired of you asking me for advice and then not fucking taking it. Mattsun too.” He watched Tooru duck his head under the sink and rinse off the rose mask, wrinkling his nose at the strong smell. “So, you understand why I’m harping on you?”

“Yeah…” Tooru said, muffled a little by his towel. He reached under his cabinet to grab his cotton circles, toner, and moisturizer. “You can go back to your memes. I miss Hana-meme-ki.”

“What the  _ fuck is up, Tooru. _ No, what’d you say, dude? What the fuck? Step the  _ fuck up, Tooru!” _

“Ohh...my god. Take Hana-meme-ki back; I don’t want him anymore.”

“Heh...maybe you should go talk to Mom when you’re done with your face.”

Tooru scooped up a dot of moisturizer and spread it across his face, making sure to get all the cracks and crevices. He took out his contacts and opted for his glasses, leaving his hair behind the headband. “Alright, I’ll go. No better time than at night, anyway.”

Hanamaki nodded, letting Tooru know he’d clean up. And, in sweats, slippers, glasses, and greasy hair, Tooru made his way down the stairs and over toward the Poseidon cabin. 

The sky was dark, stars sparkling and reflecting among the blackness. Tooru had always loved space, loved studying the stars, loved dreaming of what lay beyond...but he had a phone call he needed to make before he could do stargazing.

He knocked on the door to the Poseidon cabin, knowing there was only one tenant on the other side. The door opened and Tooru plastered the most fake smile he could imagine on his face.

“Tobio-chan! So good to see you!!” he said cheerily, opening his arms for a hug he knew he wouldn’t get.

Tobio narrowed his eyes, standing behind the door to his cabin. The building was very large and very blue and Tobio had a hard time filling the huge space all by himself, but it fit him very well. “What is it?” he asked bluntly, unsure of Tooru’s motivation in visiting him so late at night, especially when he was about to go to bed.

“Do you mind if I...make a phone call?” Tooru responded, knowing Tobio preferred he kept it straight to the point.

“An Iris message?” His wide navy eyes blinked curiously, glancing at the fountain inside his cabin. He paused for a moment, thinking about how his sleep pattern will be affected. “If you can make it quick, then yes.” He stepped backward, opening the door for his former senpai to enter.

“I shouldn’t be too long...Just want to call Mom about something real fast.” Tooru walked past Tobio, waiting for him to leave the cabin to go meditate by the ocean or whatever it was Poseidon kids did.

Tooru dug in his pocket for the drachma he nabbed before leaving his own cabin, taking a deep breath before he tossed the drachma into the mist of the fountain. An image of a woman appeared in the mist, and Tooru recognized her as Iris.

“With whom do you wish to speak?”

“Aphrodite, the goddess of love.”

“And from whom is the message coming?”

“Oikawa Tooru, one of her sons.”

“Very well. Please be patient while I connect you.”

Tooru sat himself back on one of the unoccupied beds, twiddling his fingers in his lap as he waited a few minutes for the call to connect. He always got a little anxious talking to his mom, but...conversations needed to happen sometimes. And he always felt better afterward…

_ “You are connected. You have fifteen minutes,”  _ Iris told Tooru.

“Thank you.”

“Aah!” A sound of a yelp came from the mist, the receiver of the call obviously not expecting to be summoned. The image of a blonde woman with a beautiful curvy figure manifested within the mist, holding a hairbrush in one hand and a jar of coconut oil in the other one. “Tooru? What is it?”

“I just...wanted to let you know, since I didn’t last time or the time before...there’s another...cute boy…” Tooru mumbled sheepishly.

“Tooru...There have been too many cute boys. And they all broke your heart,” she said condescendingly. “You thought you could get them and keep them on your own, even when I offered you help. And  _ this time _ you expect me to just help you out because you’re my son?”

“This one is different, though!” he whined, flailing around a little bit. “I swear, Mom...this one is different.”

“Maybe you didn’t say that, but you were thinking it last time. And the time before that.”

“Mom, please...he’s another demigod this time.”

“...oh?” She seemed to stop what she was doing, setting the jar of coconut oil down on some surface outside the view of the mist window. “Who?”

“Iwaizumi Hajime...He came to camp today, actually.”

“Who’s his parent?”

“Hephaestus.”

Aphrodite made a face that Tooru couldn’t quite decipher, somewhere between contemplative and condescending like before. Tooru sat on the edge of the bare mattress, bouncing his leg on the bed frame and playing with his fingers.

“I won’t give you advice.”

_ “Mom…” _

“Tooru. I want you to woo him on your own, but...I want you to do this in a different way. I want you to figure out how to  _ keep _ him this time, if you really think he’s gonna be the one.”

Tooru sighed, shrinking a little in defeat. “I thought...if I talked to you, you’d be able to help me…”

“And there you go again, thinking the world revolves around you…” she blurted, brushing her hair away from her face.

“How does  _ that  _ relate to anything I just told you?!” Tooru exclaimed, standing up from the edge of the bed and putting his hands on his hips.

“Tooru. I gave you something to jump off on, and instead of thinking about what you’re going to do with Hajime next, you immediately got upset that I didn’t help you in the way that you thought I would. Not everything is going to come to you on a silver plate. The real world is nothing like your father’s mansion, and while camp is not the real world either, it teaches you to interact with people outside of your family.” She huffed, scooping up one more clump of coconut oil and lathering it before threading it in the last section of her hair. “You want straight up advice? Fine. Stop thinking about you and what you need to do, and stop fucking talking all the time. Shut up every once in a while and listen. Listen to Hajime. Ask him questions. Learn about him...and then decide what you wanna do based on that information. If that’s all you wanted, then goodnight, Tooru.”

“Wait, Mom, I—”

The mist disappeared before Tooru could get his statement out.

Iris’s voice echoed in the empty cabin, “Elapsed time, five minutes and thirty eight seconds.”

Tooru’s head hung heavy on his neck, and he pouted, eyebrows scrunching together. Maybe...maybe Makki and Aphrodite had a point. There was a lot that was just given to him. Before, when he wanted to date someone, they came to him first. They came to him and told him how pretty he was and that they’d like to date him and he...he said yes. And then later when they broke up with him he blamed it on  _ them,  _ though he knew full well that...

No one wants to date some spoiled brat who only cared about themselves.

The son of Aphrodite gathered himself up, and left the Poseidon cabin when the fountain began working the same way it usually does. Making his way over to the water inlet where he knew Tobio would be, his feet dragged in the dewy grass as he walked a slow pace, hugging himself across his chest. He could see Tobio sitting on the dock, staring up at the moon the way he liked to.

“Tobio-chan...I’m finished.”

“Oh...thank you. I’m gonna go to bed, now.” The teenager got up from the edge, wet feet accompanying him as he walked swiftly back to his cabin.

“Thank you for the privacy,” Tooru muttered, knowing Tobio had already gone back to the cabin. Hearing a door shut not too long after that confirmed his suspicions.

The sea nymphs swam underneath the surface of the water. They couldn’t be seen in the darkness, but Tooru knew they were there. Still, he felt like he was alone out here on the dock, sitting with his legs folded next to the wet shapes of Tobio’s footprints. And it was nice. He looked up to the sky, grateful to see it with his glasses instead of his contacts. Hugging his knees to his chest, he sat back and counted the constellations that were visible.

And he began thinking.

* * *

Hajime couldn’t sleep.

Not only did Kuroo snore like a bear but Hajime’s mind just kept racing. The snoring he could get used to over time, but as for right now, he still had so much new information to process and a new place to be accustomed to. A new lifestyle.

Sneaking around his cabin mates, he gently opened and closed the door, leaving the crisp air conditioning inside and walking out into the humid, late spring night. The moon was a beautiful ivory color in the sky, and the stars sparkled around it like jewels. He noticed there was one window that still had a light on, up on the top floor of the Aphrodite house. A little bit of looking around told him where its occupant was, sitting on the edge of the docks by the inlet.

He made his way over there, barefoot and grateful for the soft grass underneath the pads of his feet. And the dock itself wasn’t in terrible condition, though it was clearly very old. Oikawa seemed engrossed in his thoughts, not even noticing the creaking of the boards as Hajime walked down to accompany him.

“What are you doing out this late?” he said, leaning his butt against a post on the end of the dock.

Oikawa jolted, and Hajime noticed his glasses, headband, lack of makeup… he was more beautiful this way. That was cheesy, but it was true. The skin on his face glowed under the moonlight without all that foundation and concealer caked on. “Oh, I...uh...I can’t sleep.”

“Me neither. Kuroo snores like an old man.”

“Kuroo  _ is  _ an old man.”

“You know, that statement doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.”

“Did he tell you he was your new dad now?”

“Yeah.”

Oikawa chuckled a little bit, turning his gaze back to the sky. “Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” he mimicked.

Hajime followed where he was looking, a bright glimpse among the black sky gleaming almost pink the more he looked at it. “Whatcha looking at?”

“That bright pink one there? It isn’t a star; it’s actually the planet Venus, named after—”

“Your mother, right? That’s her Roman name,” Hajime finished, looking over at Oikawa only to see his gaze was still fixed on the heavens above.

“Yeah...that’s right.” His soft brown eyes reflected the sparkles beyond.

“What else is up there?”

“Well...Orion is up there, to the right. You see his belt? The three stars in alignment right there?”

“Yeah, yeah...I see it.”

“You know the story?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Well, Orion was a very talented hunter. He thought he could hunt and kill any animal on the face of the earth. He was very prideful about it and often went around bragging about his skills. He made Gaia—”

“‘Mother Earth,’ right?”

“Yes. He made Gaia upset, and so she sent a scorpion after him. Orion tried to shoot it with his arrows but could not penetrate the armor, and when he realized he couldn’t defeat it, he jumped into the sea. Apollo saw him do this, and decided to play a cruel trick on his sister, Artemis—”

“The...hunter goddess? And...Apollo was the sun god, right?”

“Yeah, he’s also the god of music and poetry...Not all his kids are like that. I’m sure you’ve already been able to pick out some of those sunshine kids...Anyway. Apollo tricked Artemis into thinking the little black thing in the sea was a horrible monster, and she shot it with her arrow and ended up killing her friend, Orion. She begged the gods to restore his life, but they refused her, and so she put him in the sky to always see him and honor him.” Oikawa took a deep breath, sighing sadly. “Kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

“Just seems a little sad to me.”

Oikawa relaxed his legs, unwrapping his arms from where they were around his knees. “Why don’t you sit down?”

“Did you not see the giant wet spot right there?”

“Oh...goddammit, Tobio-chan. I...I’ll scoot back.”

Hajime sat down where the wet footprints stopped, welcoming Oikawa’s presence. “How do you know so much about the stars?”

Oikawa developed a deep blush on his face. “Oh...well...I just love astronomy...that’s pretty nerdy, isn’t it?”

“I’d say it makes you seem like there’s more dimension to you than makeup and designer clothes.” Hajime laid back, leaning on his hands and bending one knee.

His companion huffed a little laugh. “That’s all anyone’s ever cared about…”

“The right people don’t care about what’s on your face or what you wear, even though you are a child of Aphrodite.” Hajime shifted again so he was crossing his legs and looking Oikawa in the eyes as he spoke. “They care more about what’s going on in your thoughts.”

Oikawa didn’t speak for a moment, his natural pout almost distracting Hajime from the task at hand. Blinking his long eyelashes a few times, he left Hajime in a void of anxiety as he didn’t speak for a little while. And then, he smiled.

Not that fake smile he showed when they first met, but a soft, small lift of the lips that Hajime wanted to see every day for the rest of the time he was at camp.

“Glad to know you’re the real deal.”

Hajime wasn’t sure how to respond to that. The little blush on his face couldn’t be stopped, though.

“I...thanks?”

“You’re welcome.”

Hajime let Oikawa tell him about the stars and things in space until he started to yawn, and he was especially getting exhausted when the brunette began talking about astrophysics.

“So, in conclusion, relativity holds the key to time travel, in theory, if we can ever figure out how to travel close to the speed of light without imploding—”

“Oikawa, I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

“Oh...I probably should as well.” He pulled his phone and checked the time. “Shit, we’re gonna be exhausted in the morning.”

“Well, I enjoyed talking with you. Even when you started on stuff I didn’t understand.” They both got up from the dock, Hajime offering his hand to help Oikawa up.

They went back into their cabins with awkward goodbyes, and both of them awoke the next morning more rested than any of their cabinmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yooo it's been eternity haha. finally here's the third chapter, after fucking months of writer's block. nerdy oikawa and hana-meme-ki are already fan faves.
> 
> come yell at me at https://chance-the-writa.tumblr.com/


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